The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-02-03
OCEAN TRADE.
The Foreign Business Done at
This Port,
BY the Dominion and Allan Steam
ship Lines.
How the Cargoes are Made Up
and Handled.

duo HaUutSu.
The Grand Trunk Railway wharves at this
season are a busy place, thronged with
small army of men engaged in some way or
other in loading or unloading the great
ocean steamships and the hundreds of rail-
road cars in which the goods composing the
cargoes are carried to and from Portland
In the long sheds are eyer-changing piles of
merchandise. Incoming steamers and trains
add to the piles until the sheds are crowded
only to be emptied ready for fresh arrivals OF
goods, as the sailing days of the ships come
round.
sight-seer strolling about the wharyes
when the sheds are full of freight has
chance to see all the different kinds of goods
which make up a cargo. One of these long
and low buildings lie may find filed with
freight in bags, the bags piled as high as
his shoulder, and the piles extending to the
other end OF the shed, so far away that it
grows small in the perspective. In another
shed are long lines of boxes and variously-
shaped packages, while here and there are
odd collections of miscellaneous goods, in
Guiding different manufactured articles and
hundred other things. The stroller about
the sheds passes tierces of pork, lard and
tallow, boxes of bacon, bags of wheat and
peas, boxes of cheese and butter. sacks of
flour and oatmeal, and cases of canned
meats,-a variety of food stuffs great
enough to supply hotel with about every
thing needed for cooking first class meals
In addition to the contents of the sheds.
the Grand Trunk grain elevator supplies the
steamers with the grain in bulk, which con-
stitutes large part of their cargoes.
The great carrying capacity of a modern
steamship becomes apparent when it is
learned that the goods for an average cargo
for the ships leaving Portland fills 200 freight
cars, or about eight trains as trains are gen.
orally made up on the Grand Trunk. or
course, this is an average number of cars
Some cargoes are composed of bulkier goods
than Others, and some of the largest ships.
such as the Vancouver, Partisan and Oregon,
would require about $50 car loads of freight
HOW CARGoEs ARE HANDLED.
The handling of this great amount of
freight gives employment to a large number
of men. When an incoming shin has
reached the dock and hercaptain has entered
at the Custom House. the 'longshoremen
begin operations. Tackle and fall is rugged
over each hatchway, aud the packages of
freight, hoisted by the donkey engines upon
the vessels deck, are placed on hand trucks
and trundled into the sheds on the wharf nv
the stevedores. When the ship has
pairing for sea, the work of the
stevedores is reversed and the trucks coming
from the sheds to the deck are loaded to be
returned empty, when the freight has been
lowered INTO the hold Messrs. Mills and
McMasters, the stevedores of the Dominion
line, keep from so to 100 men busy when
| they have ships in port and Mr. i. A. Neal.
who loads and unloads the Allan ships. fur
nlshes employment to about 70 men. The
greater part of the 'longshoremen are citi-
zens of the United State but some are
brought here each year from Canada,
A force entirely Independent from the
steyedores loads and unl0ads the cars. When
the trains are backed down to the wharf,
these men take the goods from the cars ana
pile them up in the sheds. Having got the
outward bound freight into the sheds, their
| work with 1t is done, and the goods are not
touched again until the stevedores take them.
| On the other hand, in dscharging cargoes.
the stevedores take the freight from the YES,
sells as far as the sheds and there the Grand
Trunk men take it and load it in the cars.
There are In all about 90 of these men en-
pioyed 10 loading and unloading the trains.
Among them are carpenters, masons and
piasterers, who during the winter when
work at their trade is dull. are glad enough
to earn dollar and a half day in this man
ner. Inc work. OF course, is not steady the
men losing good many days when there is
no freight TO be handled, but during the busy
season they are kept employed the greater
part Of the time. UxE
Before the cargo Is removed from a Ship
and during its discharge, the port wardens
visit the vessel to see in what condition the
freight has reached here The United States
boarding Qfficer has already been on board
and looked after. the ships papers, and in
adyanceof any of them the pilot met the
ship somewhere outside the harbor ana
| guided her into port
The government interests at the Wbarves
are looked out for by fourteen custom house
inspectors, on duty at different times, and
four watchmen. Then there are the check
ers, who keep account of the different arti-
Giles, employed by the steamship lines and
the Grand Trunk Railway, and men en-
pioyed In various other capacities.
THE BUSINESS DONE
The volume Of business already done this
year by the two steamship lines running to
Portland Is shown in the following state
ments:
The Dominion line, up to Jan. 23d, hal re-
celyeu and despatched nine steamers. They
mad landed here IL, Ala tons of cargo for Cam
ada and the Western States, besides 2681
tons of coal for the use of their Steamers.
They have carried out 24,S77 tons of cargo.
made up as follows. from Canada and the
Western States: S37, 1914 bushels of wheat i'm
bulk, 51,5l3 bushels wheat in bags, 1O7, $3.50
bushels peas in bulk, 77,494 bushels peas i'm
bags, 1921 bushels oats in bulk, 1886 boxes
cheese, 920S packages butter, $3.50 sacks
Hour, Sl1S sacks oat meal, 1880 boxes bacon,
349 tierces of pork, 6S3 tierces lard, 1894 cases
Of canned meats, 60 tierces tallow, 2425 bar
rels apples. 2050 packages sundries.
In addition to the above, this line has car
rled 70 England 1921 cattle, of which 575 came
from the United States and the remaindar
from Canada, and 1874 sheep.
The following table shows the amount of
freight brought here and carried away nv
each-of the Allan shins which hnun e